Conquering the Land (Campaign 4: The North)

To conquer the Northern Territories we look again to how Joshua and the tribes of Israel conquered the Promise Land (Joshua 11)

King Jabin of Hazor was the strongman for the entire Northern region. As we saw in the previous articles, Biblical names are embedded with meaning…

Jabin means ‘God has built’ or ‘one who is intelligent has built’ and also means ‘discerning’ and ‘the wise’ whilst Hazor means ‘enclosed, fortified’ ‘enclosed settlement’

So the full name Jabin of Hazor means, ‘one who is intelligent, discerning and wise has built an enclosed settlement’

As we conquer The North we need wisdom to build. As King Solomon says, ‘wisdom builds a house…’ and ‘unless the Lord builds the house the workers labour in vain’ (Proverbs 24:3, Psalm 127:1). But we also need to ‘be careful how we build’ (1 Corinthians 3:10)

King Jabin rallied together the following kings and their towns and armies, taken together there is much meaning behind these names that indicate the way in which we need to conquer the land for Kingdom Movements as we wrestle with these principalities and powers in our day…

King Jobab of Madon

Jobab means ‘sorrowful, hated’ but also ‘celestial jubilation’, ‘fullness of joy,’‘welling up shouts of rejoicing’‘trumpet call of victory’ and Madon means ‘a chiding, a garment, his measure’

Those who begin to build on solid foundations usually endure constant chiding due to the hatred of their enemies. Take for example the governor Nehemiah who set about the rebuilding of the broken-down city walls of his home city (see the book of Nehemiah). The sorrow caused by the constant derision can turn into an opportunity for great rejoicing that brings victory as joy wells up within us. Nehemiah called for focus as the people built with one hand and held the sword with another. Up until this time the focus of Joshua’s war had been on conquest, but here the focus shifts to a duel purpose- fight and build, fight and build.

King Shimron means ‘thorns, dregs.’ Jesus described this stronghold in his most important parable of the Kingdom (see Matthew 13). On overcoming hardship due to obedience to Jesus and his Kingdom (soil 2), the next soil to overcome is the thorns of this life that produce dregs- that which is worthless and fruitless (soil 3). After hardship, it’s easy to settle into comfort, but the apostle Paul prepares us by warning us that ‘through many hardships we enter the kingdom of heaven’

When the enemy can’t stop us from advancing the kingdom through sending hardship because of the Word (Jobab) or through the distractions of this life (Shimron), he attempts to destroy everything around us. In this regard, the next king mentioned is King of Acshaph which means ‘place of sorcery’ or ‘destruction’

These four principle kings of the North could well represent four great oppositions to the building of the kingdom represented by Jesus’ parable of the soils. King Jabin (stoney soil), King Jobab (shallow soil), King Shimron (thorny soil), King Acshaph (attempts to destroy the fruit of the good soil)

These principal Kings of the North are then joined by all the kings of the northern hill country, plus the kings of the Jordan Valley south of Galilee, the kings in the Galilean foothills/the Sheplelah [lowland] and the kings of Naphoth-dor on the West meaning ‘the heights or reigns of habitation’ That’s some formidable force! Spiritual wickedness in both high and low places!

Interestingly Galilee means ‘the circuit’, ‘district’‘circle’‘band’, ‘a chapel or porch at entrance of a church associated with the laity’ and ‘county of the Gentiles’

There are so many kings and territories to overcome mentioned here that circuits and travelling bands are needed. These travelling teams also include the ‘laity’, an army of ordinary people travelling in teams as we go to the Gentiles. That’s what Jesus did in that territory! He chose 12 and they travelled with him and then sent out a further 72!

Next in the list of foes, five of the seven mortal enemies of the Israelites are mentioned, these are the kings of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites and the kings of the Hivites [we will look closer at these 7 enemy nations on another occasion]

But for now, know this, in this Northern battle there’s a hell of a lot of kings to defeat, but we read ‘[…] Joshua killed all the kings of those territories, waging war for a long time to accomplish this’ (Joshua 11:17-18)

The race is not for the swift, nor the battle for the strong but for those who endure to the end

‘So Joshua took control of the entire land, just as the LORD had instructed Moses. He gave it to the people of Israel as their special possession, dividing the land among the tribes. So the land finally had rest from war.’ (Joshua 11:23)

Joshua’s war on the Northern Territories prefigures what Jesus does as he begins his campaign in Galilee of the North

And we continue to endure opposition as we move forward the vision of Mission Britain to see 1000 churches planted amongst the Gentiles across the 12 Regions of Britain and Ireland…